


Muggle Studies

by Dead_Waltzer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crack, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22809469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dead_Waltzer/pseuds/Dead_Waltzer
Summary: Lily Evans has a crush on the new class lecturer. T for language, but nothing serious.
Relationships: Arthur Weasley/Lily Evans Potter (one sided), Arthur Weasley/Molly Weasley (mentioned), Arthur Weasley/Original Character (female), James Potter/Lily Evans (implied)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Muggle Studies

**Author's Note:**

> Hi y'all. Saw this fic lying around and decided to finish it up and post it here. Basic premise is, "what if Lily had a crush on Arthur Weasley?" 
> 
> I don't know how the thought came into my head, I'm just rolling with it. Meant to be canon compliant, though.

Lily J. Evans sat in the back of her Muggle Studies classroom, slouching as far down in her seat as possible. It had seemed like a great idea to take the elective at the start of the year-- why not, when she knew all there was to know about muggles? And wouldn’t she have a chance to make some muggleborn friends in the class as well?

As it turned out, there were relatively few muggleborns who wanted to take Muggle Studies with her. Professor Kornleus, a tall and gaunt old man who may have genuinely been teaching the course for a century, didn’t seem to understand anything about the muggle world, and muggleborns had apparently been avoiding his class for decades because he never let them correct him.

Lily would have gotten this memo too, but being friends with Severus Snape meant that she was something of an outcast amongst her fellow muggleborns, and any attempts to change that (this one being the latest) were generally unsuccessful. The class was sparsely populated, with a few half-bloods and partial-bloods taking it for an easy grade, and a smattering of purebloods who seemed more interested in rebelling against their parents than learning about Muggle England.

“The popular muggle music of today is something called ‘rag-time’,” droned Kornleus, who was wearing a stiff collar and bowtie. He looked something like the Teddy-boys that hung out at the coffee shop next to Lily’s house. “It is typically played on a piano instrument and there are a variety of dances that go along with it…”

“He’s never heard of Paul McCartney,” Lily remarked to no one in particular, although she earned a snicker from a few students next to her. They’d stopped asking her for help on their assignments after it became clear the the professor didn’t really know much about Muggle culture of today, so she mainly provided witty comments from the back of the room. Kornleus was so old that he’d never hear her, so she wasn’t in danger of ruining her academic record with a slew of arbitrary detentions.

Class went on for another half hour. Before the students were ready to go, Kornleus cleared his throat loudly and then waved for the students to sit down.

“I understand that this class is not as popular as it was in the past,” he said, and the sadness in his gaze made Lily almost feel sorry for him-- almost, because he really didn’t have to be as stubborn as he was about his curriculum-- “and I’ve decided to bring in some fresh faces to present to all of you. Next class we will have a young man from the Ministry of Magic coming to give a talk about muggle musical culture in England, and I expect you all to be on your very best behavior.”

“How young, I wonder?” giggled Tracy Goldberg next to Lily. Lily shrugged, not sure what to make of the announcement. Would this guy be more educated about muggles, or just another idiot with crazy ideas?

“We’ll see,” she said airily, before gathering her quills and parchment and scurrying out the door.

____

“Hey! Evans!” 

Lily didn’t even have time to turn around before a giant ball of mud hit her in the shoulder. She grimaced and turned to her assailant, who looked back at her with a twinkle in the eye.

“Nice Felix Felicis, Evans. Really saved you from the my stellar aim.”

Lily sighed, narrowing her eyes at Henrietta Zabini. Zabini’s smile was too wide, her stare too intense. “Yours turned out well too, Zabini. Except it’s clearly made you even more of a overzealous cunt than you usually are.”

Zabini looked momentarily confused. “Cunt? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Technically,” Lily retorted, “it means vagina, but I really just mean that you’re an idiot who’s going to end up married to your own inbred cousin just so you don’t starve to death. There’s no way you’re getting a job after school, with your marks.”

After another moment, Zabini’s eyes narrowed, “Well, at least I’m not a filthy little mudblood whose cousins would burn her at the stake if they knew she was a witch!”

Lily bristled. She had managed to go five years at Hogwarts without getting into any major fights with pureblood supremacists, but she was fast approaching the end of her rope. 

“Go to Hell, Zabini! I could hex circles around you any day!” she cried. 

“Want to bet, mudblood?” said Zabini, drawing her wand. Lily paled, remembering that Zabini was probably high out of her mind on Felix Felicis. Lily had been saving her store for the upcoming finals. 

“That’s enough of that, girls,” said a male voice from behind Lily. “Henrietta, pleasure to see you again.”

Henrietta scowled at whoever was standing behind Lily. Slowly, Lily turned her head and blinked at the sunlight. The man behind her was young, probably not even thirty yet. He had brilliant red hair and a face full of freckles, making him look even younger. He had large, brown eyes that were narrowed at Zabini, and his mouth was pressed in a firm line. She blushed in spite of herself-- he was rather handsome and very calm, easily taking control of the situation that she’d almost let get out of hand.

“Weasley,” Zabini hissed, “leave it to you to stalk the pretty mudblood girls on campus. Does your wife know?”

Lily looked rapidly from this Weasley person to Zabini and back again. “Do you know him?” she asked in spite of herself.

“My name’s Arthur,” said the man, smiling at Lily with a warmth that made her feel uncomfortably warm in turn. “Arthur Weasley. I work for the Ministry of Magic, but I’m set to give a talk today.”

“Muggle Studies, I’m guessing,” Zabini said behind Lily. “Well, you’ll get to know her real well, then.”

“I’m definitely going to report you, Henrietta,” Arthur continued, hands in his pockets. “It’d be a shame, you really don’t need a worse academic record than what your mother’s told me you have now.”

“Bugger off!” Zabini hissed, and walked away as quickly as she could, clearly fuming.

“Wow,” said Arthur, “she’s even more wired now than she usually is.”

“Uh, she definitely took a lot of Felix Felicis,” Lily muttered quickly, before glancing at Arthur again. He was married, Zabini had mentioned. Lily had a habit of turning bright red when she was embarrassed or flustered, and just worrying about it was probably making her redder by the minute, but if he noticed, he didn’t say anything. He just chuckled to himself, like Lily had just made some joke that only he could understand.

“What’s your name?” Arthur asked her gently, and Lily felt herself get even redder, so she averted her eyes. 

“Lily Evans,” she said. “I’m, um, I’m a fifth year. I’m sixteen.”

_Nice, you idiot. You just had to tell him you were the legal age of consent, right?_

“Taking Muggle Studies?”

“Well, yeah, I’m uh, I’m--” she couldn’t seem to get her words right. “I’m a mudbloo-- muggleborn, you know, so I thought it’d be a good idea.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow. Lily bit her lip. “Was it?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah,” she said. “Yeah, totally.”

“Really, I haven’t heard wonderful things about the professor. Some of the muggleborns I worked with thought he never wanted to listen to them,” said Arthur, watching the clouds. Did he look nervous too? Lily didn’t want to suddenly look like an infatuated schoolgirl, or a juvenile homewrecker. “I always liked the old guy fine, though.”

“Thanks for, um, helping me,” she said quickly, “but I’d better get going.” She promptly turned on her heel and tried to speedwalk away faster than a drugged-up Henrietta Zabini.

“Wait! Lily!” she heard him call after her. She stopped in her tracks.

“Yes?” she said without turning around.

“You’re going to be in the class this week, right?” Arthur said. “Would you mind reviewing some of my notes?”

Lily slowly turned her head to Arthur, who seemed to be a little red himself now. She bit her lip again. 

“Uh, sure,” she said, “When should I get them?”

“Tomorrow afternoon,” he said. “I just-- I mean, I hope you don’t mind. Being Muggle-born and all, and being in the class, it would be great to have that feedback.” He grinned sheepishly, boyishly, and Lily hastily grinned back.

“Groovy, I mean, great, sure,” she said, waved awkwardly, and quickly made her way back to the Gryffindor commonroom.

_

“What’s got you red in the face, Evans?” 

“Leave off, Potter.” 

James grinned. Lily just rolled her eyes and turned away. She didn’t know why James Potter insisted on teasing her when Severus wasn’t around, but she definitely didn’t like it. 

“Something steamy between you and Snape?”

“Leave _off_ , Potter!” 

James raised his hands in mock defeat, and turned back to his buddies, still chuckling and smirking in her direction. How he managed to bring girl after girl back to his room was beyond her. Not only was he gangly (growing some muscle now, but still strangely wiry for a Quidditch player) and four-eyed, but a gigantic bully too. She didn’t understand why girls liked confident, insensitive jocks. Why not an intellectual? Why not someone freckled and redheaded and…?

Oh, she was almost late to go see Arthur! Quickly, Lily put on her coat and pushed James aside (the jerk was blocking the door). He didn’t seem to mind, just smirked when her hand touched his chest.

Arthur was in Professor Kornleus’s office, with Professor Kornleus right next to him. Lily wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. 

“Miss Evans,” Professor Kornleus smiled, and Lily felt almost bad for her biting remarks this past semester. “What a pleasure. Please, come in.”

Arthur smiled too, and Lily looked down, hoping that neither could see her blush.

“Mr. Weasley was one of my finest students in the day,” said Professor Kornleus, “he made wonderful marks and got himself a fine job. I’m sure you could do the same in due time.”

“Thank you, Professor,” Lily said. 

“I wanted Lily to help with some of the material,” Arthur said, “it just would make so much sense, you know. Best to hear about Muggle studies from Muggle-borns themselves.”

He turned to Lily and grinned again. “So could you help me a bit?”

Lily grinned back, hoping he couldn’t see her blush. “Sure!”

___

Wow, alright. Arthur really did not know anything about muggle culture. Lily demonstrated the distinction between headphones and earmuffs-- the former you listened to broadcasts and music with with, the latter kept your ears warm in the middle of winter.

“Why don’t they put a music box in the earmuffs then?” he’d wanted to know, and she’d blushed and bit her lip. 

“Maybe you should invent something like that,” she said, but he had already turned back to his work. 

An hour later, she left the office feeling light and giddy. This man was handsome, curious (if not a little overzealous to infer the uses of Muggle technology) and pureblooded but _interestedinherinterestedinherinterestedinher_ \-- culture. He was interested in Lily’s culture. He was married, right.  
As Lily turned the corner, Henrietta Zabini stepped out in front of her, scowling.

“Henrietta-- how did you--” Lily began, but Zabini waved her off. 

“Felix Felicis, _potions’ mistress_ ,” she said, stepping forward. “Little mudblood slut wants to seduce the pureblood prince charming. Well, if I haven’t heard that one before.”

She narrowed her eyes at Lily, who sputtered, “I wasn’t-- I never--” 

“Oh, please, love,” Zabini said, “what were you on about this whole time? You hated Muggle Studies, now you’re doing _extra credit_? He’d never look two ways at you, you know. Not for keeping.”

“I know, he’s got a wife,” Lily said, “I’m not trying to do anything. I want to talk about my family and my heritage, not your inbred lot of--”

“Oh, Arthur’s inbred now, is he?” Zabini’s declaration was loud enough that Lily hoped Arthur was trying out the headphones in the office, and couldn’t hear her. “No, that’s not what I meant. He had a girlfriend, once. Loved her a whole lot. But she was mudblood, like you. He backed off, and now he’s married.”

Lily was going to ask Zabini how she knew, but then she remembered how much pure-blooded families talked. Instead, she said, “You’re lying.”

Zabini grinned, “Now, why would I have to make up a lie like that? You’ll get your easy A in no time, no help from me.” 

Lily glanced back at Kornleus's office, where Arthur was still likely fiddling around with muggle technology, and before she knew it, Zabini was gone.

____

Lily did some investigation.

“Sirius,” she said, finding James’s old mate in the library. Sirius was as bad as James when it came to meatheadedness, but he’d come from a worse family. The fact that he brightened up upon seeing her spoke to the way he’d overcome their bigotry, so he made Lily’s stomach churn only slightly less than James did.

“Lily Evans!” he said, “Come to ask about taking Jimmy up on his broomstick lessons?”

“Cut it out,” Lily said, “I came to ask about this new lecturer in Muggle Studies.”

“And who would that be?”

“Arthur Weasley.”

Sirius’s smile got wider. “Ah, the old white sheep! The _original_. When he almost ran off with the muggleborn girl, my family couldn’t stop chattering. I aspire to follow in his footsteps, one day.”

Lily’s smile faltered, and Sirius turned red, saying, “Oh, no, not you, Lily! I’d never violate the br-- I mean, you’re nice and all, but--”

Lily shook her head, “I wasn’t thinking that.” Sirius let out an audible sigh of relief, then paused and looked back at Lily with a quizzical expression. Lily hated how easy it was to turn red.

“So...what did you want to know?” he asked. 

“I, uh, I…” wait. What had her alibi been? Sirius was like an open picture book in how easy it was to get information out of him. “I, um…”

“You do know that he’s married, right?” Sirius asked, his tone light. He cocked his head to the side. 

Lily sighed, “No, I mean…” she just decided to go with the truth.

“Is it true that he left her because she was muggleborn?”

Sirius’s entire demeanor darkened. Lily’s must have, too, when she saw his face change, because he quickly became even more flustered, raising his hands as if to defend himself.

“Look, Lily,” he began, awkwardly, “um, it’s hard to explain. Pureblooded families, they won’t, they’re not… They’re not all as awful and wicked as my folks, yeah? Sometimes, you wanna stand up for your _ideals_ , but your mom and dad raised you, and it’s like, hard, see?”

Lily evidently did not see, because Sirius got more tense and agitated, “I don’t know the full story, but Arthur always stood up for what he believed in-- but he believed in family, too, yeah? And this girl-- she would never have been welcomed by his folks, like not really, even if they were good at heart and all-- and his wife, Molly, she’s actually a real sweetheart, she helped him through it all and she’d never--”

His monologue was cut short by Lily’s very hasty departure out of the library, back turned to hide her tears.

“Well,” Sirius said to himself, slipping a pin-up magazine out from under the cover of the dense textbook he’d been 'reading', “shit.”

___

Arthur lectured brilliantly that day. His gestures were animated, his humor spot-on. Lily ranked him a 6/10 for accurate content when it came time to do evaluations, whilst her classmates seemed to give him perfect marks. Kornleus sat in the back of the room and dozed off. 

Lily tried to leave immediately after the course, but of course he had to call her back.

“Wait-- Miss Evans,” he’d said, and Lily had hesitated for a moment. She took an internal deep breath and focused her features on becoming totally still and controlled. 

She turned around, and her voice broke when she stammered, “Y-yes?” She should have focused on controlling her voice too, dammit. 

Arthur hesitated for just a moment, then said, “Is everything alright?” He seemed genuine, as always, and Lily found that it was hard to stay angry at such an earnest face. She’d fantasized about calling him out for his hypocrisy in the middle of class, or maybe afterwards. She’d tried to picture the look on his and her classmates’ faces when she revealed him to just be another pureblood purist with bright red hair and a dorky smile.

But now her anger was leaving her. Arthur still looked hesitant, then said in a soft voice, “Did I say something wrong?” 

Lily shook her head, trying not to meet his gaze. Her eyes caught sight of the ring he wore on his left hand. He grinned and held it up, so it glinted in the light.

“It was my wife and I-- Molly and me, you know, we’re both wizards, but we wanted something like this, from the muggle world. I had--” his face fell for a fraction of a second, but Lily caught it like a polaroid picture in her mind-- the muggle kind, the kind where you just held onto one moment forever. “I had a...friend, whose family were muggles. Best family you could hope for. She’s got a muggle husband, too, I think they really know something about marriage and all. So Molly and me figure the secret might be in here.”

He wiggled his fingers in the sunlight, almost like the fake magical gestures that muggle children around Lily had performed when she was growing up, and Lily laughed in spite of herself. 

“Well, it’s not magic, you know, it’s just heart,” she’d said. “It’s just your _heart_ and, you know, some metal around your finger.”

Arthur was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “Sometimes, I think wizards are just afraid of them. How much they’ve achieved, it just makes them feel...stagnant. We have to do something about that here, in the wizarding world.”

He snapped out of his trance and looked back at her, “So,” he asked, “how is everything? Good?”

Lily smiled genuinely this time, “Good, but Mr. Weasley, really, that digital watch isn’t living an hour in the past-- it’s just a slow watch.”

“Ah,” Arthur said, “what’s the difference?”

“It’s useless,” Lily had wanted to say, but then she shut her mouth when she saw how excited he was. He saw so much _meaning_ in her world. Maybe contact with more muggles would disillusion him. She wasn’t sure what to tell him. 

“Thank you for coming to the class, Mr. Weasley,” she said, and waved goodbye. 

Down the hall, she heard him shout, “Thank you for having me, Ms. Evans!” She didn’t need to hide her blush or her grin, she wore it proudly down the rest of the hallway.

___

Back in Gryffindor common room, James was waiting for her. 

“Hey,” he said. His glasses were laid on the side table, and his hair was neatly combed. Lily blinked. He looked almost like a different person.

“Hey,” she said, pretending to suddenly be interested in the peppermint tea and cookies on the other side of the room.

“I thought you were on a diet,” he called to her as she stuffed a peanut butter cookie into her mouth.

“Mmfghh-- _stalker_ ,” she got out.

“Um, look, Sirius was being a jerk,” James said, and Lily froze. Sirius told James. Of course he did.

“Lily, look--” James said, but Lily marched up to the girls’ dormitory before he could get anything else out. That magic slide had prevented him from getting up there since third year. The last person she wanted to hear from today was that idiot.

___

The next morning, Lily was getting ready to go out to class. She packed her textbooks in her bag, and was about to head out the door, when James came down from the boys’ dormitory. Lily really should have splurged on some of that Felix Felicis…

James’s hair was tousled from sleep, and he still didn’t have his glasses. He looked disoriented, nothing like the poised and arrogant prick that she usually knew.

“Um, so I heard that some purebloods were giving you a hard time,” he said awkwardly, “And, well, I wanted to tell you last night…”

Lily cocked an eyebrow. 

“We have something that could help you, I think,” he said, and a sly, slightly cocky grin returned to his face. Suddenly, he didn’t look as bad as Lily remembered, and she felt something familiar stir in her chest.

Oh, god, no. Not _James_ of all people. Not another pureblooded assho--

“It’s this map,” James said, “for us-- me, Lupin, Black, Pettigrew. The _Marauders_.”

“The _Marauders Map_?” Lily asked, and James laughed. 

“I guess you could call it that,” he said, “It shows you, well, pretty much the whole school. We've got almost everyone in it--" Lily gave him a look, and he said, "uh, I mean, just to be thorough...I’m technically in possession at the moment, but I’ll let you borrow indefinitely if it gets Zabini off your back.”

“No broomstick lessons?” Lily asked.

James sighed, not even bothering with a witty comeback. “No broomstick lessons,” he promised.

Lily grinned. Oh, all of the ideas she had now!

“Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> I *believe* Arthur would have been at the Ministry while Lily and co. were in school, but don't quote me on that. I might edit this later if I see any mistakes.


End file.
